Various electronic modules are often mounted in a rack or cabinet. Some standard racks and cabinets include the 19-inch rack, the 23-inch rack and the 600 mm cabinet. In certain situations, smaller printed circuit boards and sub-modules need to be mounted in a rack or cabinet. Often it is not practical or even possible to mount multiple sub-modules individually to the rack or cabinet. In these circumstances, it is common to use a chassis instead. The sub-modules are mounted to the chassis and the chassis is mounted to the rack or cabinet.
However, the sub-modules often cannot simply be placed in the chassis but need to be mounted or secured. Securing the sub-modules to the chassis prevents the sub-modules from falling out of the chassis and provides pressure to help maintain connections in the back of the chassis. Hence, using a chassis adds a limitation to the amount of space available for sub-modules. This space limitation is caused by the need for space to mount the chassis to the rack or cabinet and the additional space needed to mount the sub-modules to the chassis. This space limitation can become a problem when designing modular equipment to fit in a rack or cabinet.
For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for a system to mount sub-modules in a chassis without the space limitations of a typical chassis.